1014 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



to technical and scientific knowledge, have led to a better appreciation 

 of the value of the application of scientific study and methods to busi- 

 ness and industrial operations, and have been productive of citizen- 

 ship of a high quality. 



At the same time, the work of these institutions thus far has been 

 largely occupied with laying foundations. The}^ have been burdened 

 wdth the demand for practical men. A ditferentiation of the instruc- 

 tional work b}^ which the more elementary phases wall be adminis- 

 tered in industrial, trade, and manual training schools is, however, ' 

 forthcoming, leaving the engineering schools free to devote their 

 resources to instruction and research in the higlier branches of tech- 

 nology, with vastly beneficial results. The general establishment of 

 experimental bureaus or laboratories analogous to the agricultural 

 experiment stations was predicted as a logical step in this direction. 



Dr. W. H. Jordan's address was upon The Authority of Science. 

 This authority, he explained, is derived not from platform specula- 

 tions, magazine exploitation of theories, nor reports of progress, but 

 from severely tested and verified knowledge; and he proceeded to 

 outline in a logical and forceful way the conditions which determine 

 the reliability of scientific deductions, factors which have been inimi- 

 cal to agricultural research of the true type in this country, and the 

 need of broader conceptions and greater freedom. 



With a frankness that made his meaning unmistakable, but with a 

 fairness and appreciation that recognized the full value of this 

 great movement, the speaker pointed out that much of the so-called 

 agricultural inquiry in this country has been not so much research 

 as the exploitation of existing knowledge, obtained in many instances 

 from foreign sources without amplification or adaptation. "Although 

 important new truths have been brought to light, our efforts at 

 inquiry have neither produced results nor commanded the respect 

 of the scientific world to an extent commensurate with the generous 

 means applied. During the past twenty-five years we have been 

 busy, instead, with much agricultural speaking and writing." As 

 a result, " we are now seeing with greater distinctness every year that 

 the more complex and more important problems of agriculture are 

 still unsolved, and that because of this our utterances to the practi- 

 cal man are still lame and halting.'' The investigator was ])ointed to 

 as the primary consideration in scientific research, and he was con- 

 sidered from the standpoints of his personal equipment for investiga- 

 tion, his motives or point of view, and his environment. 



Doctor Jordan made an earnest appeal to the colleges and univer- 

 sities to give more attention to the training and preparation of men 

 for this work, and the inculcation of the propsr spirit and point of 

 view. " It is a serious question," he said, " whether w^e are right in 

 our educational plans when we place almost the entire emphasis upon 



